


devochka

by meikuree (rillarev)



Series: maybe it's my hard head that keeps me dreaming [2]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Apocalypse, Canon Universe, F/F, Light Angst, Reunions, pieck/yelena is in here but it's very minor and simply hinted at
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-31
Updated: 2020-03-31
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:21:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23408947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rillarev/pseuds/meikuree
Summary: When she finally gets to slow down, hours after unceremoniously depositing her mouth’s unwilling passengers into a river, she sees the person she least expected of all standing amongst the slapdash group of Paradis and Marley refugees who have banded together.It’s—“Annie,” Pieck gasps as she exits her titan in a whirlwind of steam.In which Pieck and Annie reunite during the Rumbling after four years apart.
Relationships: Annie Leonhart/Pieck
Series: maybe it's my hard head that keeps me dreaming [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1652560
Comments: 6
Kudos: 34
Collections: Fic Journal of the Plague Year





	devochka

**Author's Note:**

> takes place during ch. 127; beware spoilers.
> 
> devochka (девочка): russian for "girl". because i had to put to use the russian that i learned a few years ago to impress a pretty girl somehow.

The Rumbling comes, to nobody’s surprise, with an abundance of confused hurrying and frazzlement, of people rushing about and clasping their mouths in catastrophe-induced dazes. Nobody has signed up to be around during what might well be this world’s equivalent of apocalypse, but it is as though everyone has intuited that the script for this situation involves losing their collective marbles.

There is a lot of split-second decision-making and vexed angry muttering under Magath’s breath. There is also a lot of dust, and sand, and smoke, and _blur_ as Pieck wills her titan to run through Paradis’s streets at dizzying speed, winding around all their twists and turns.

One moment, Pieck finds herself with her body hovering between the swaying boundaries of monster and human as she wanders around like a comical chimera abandoned by god halfway during creation, her top half emerging from her four-legged titan. The next, she is drawn back into its flesh to launch a heart-spinning rescue of Yelena, Onyankopon, and Jean. Her titan’s mouth, cavern vessel as it is, becomes an accidental receptable for the people who carry small pieces of hope for rescuing the world. The way she carries them in their mouth as she makes her daring escape with them is almost germinatory, she thinks. Except that they are not green shoots sprouting forth from a seed that will revive the world. They are besmirched weeds fighting their way out of deadening ash.

So it is a surprise then, when she finally gets to slow down, hours after unceremoniously depositing her mouth’s unwilling passengers into a river, and sees the person she least expected of all standing amongst the slapdash group of Paradis and Marley refugees who have banded together.

It’s—

“Annie,” Pieck gasps as she exits her titan in a whirlwind of steam, unable to help herself. 

Her voice is a stricken chord of disbelief and shock. Annie stands with Reiner, Gabi and Falco around the campfire in the settling blue of the evening. _This must be all that remains of the Warriors,_ is the grim conclusion that punctures Pieck’s consciousness then.

The Rumbling has capsized the world, and in twenty-four hours all its usual rules have been broken apart. And yet, it has returned someone most dear back to the realm of the living—

She takes five rapid steps towards Annie. Annie turns to see who it is descending so quickly towards her, in case it is yet another person out to punch her face in. Her face is drawn in anticipatory annoyance, but that immediately gives way to shock as she sees Pieck. Reiner turns then as well, and his face quirks a little in knowing at the reunion that is happening around their tiny circle near the woods.

“Pieck?” Annie speaks, her voice hardly higher than a whisper.

Pieck flies into her and envelopes her immediately in a tight hug. Annie’s let her hair down, and she feels it on her hands as she wraps her arms around Annie’s living, breathing body. “I’ve missed you _so, so much,_ ” she breathes out, rapidly becoming emotional as light tears form at her eyes. There is so much to say, so much she wants to tell Annie.

They separate then, and Pieck presses her forehead to Annie’s in a gentle gesture—the only person around for miles whom Annie would allow the privilege to do so.

Annie’s lips quirk up in a pained smile that barely conceals her sadness. “Yeah, well, took me only four years to come back.”

“Are you alright? How are you with everything?” Pieck asks. Her question comes off anticlimatic in the wake of all that has happened, but catching up has to start somewhere. Annie’s expression softens. Pieck feels her hands around Annie’s arms. “You’ve lost weight,” she comments.

Annie sucks in a breath and readies her spiel. “I just spent four years in a self-induced coma in a crystal made from the dregs of my own energy, where I had to listen to a girl’s inane rants about boys the whole time—give me a break,” is her sardonic response. Despite herself Pieck chuckles a little. “And I’m working on it. Ate an unbelievable amount earlier.” She snorts, reminiscing about her pie from earlier in the day.

“Should’ve known you’d find ways to survive,” Pieck chuckles. “You’ve always been resourceful. And you wouldn’t have left your father alone.” She wants to weep, regaining a friend she never even got to say goodbye properly to, but she holds it together to smile for Annie.

”Well, I’m too selfish to give up my life,” Annie jokes. “I’m trying to get used to moving around again. And besides… there’s a lot I’ve missed. I’ve just been trying to catch up on everyone’s dramas. Hitch told me a little, but not all of it.”

“Happy to help on that,” Pieck says. “Where’re you at?”

“At _Marley is apparently at fucking war with Paradis_ , because Eren couldn’t keep his death-wishes to himself,” Annie deadpans, but Pieck can tell she’s deeply annoyed and disturbed at the state of affairs. She knows Annie well enough. “Not much else. By the way, the new people you brought are strangers to me. Who are they, anyway?”

Pieck nods silently, and scans the scene. Yelena is sitting still, a blank lifeless stare in her eyes, the looming forest a dark draping backdrop behind her. Onyankopon is conversing with Hange about what they plan to do about Eren. She turns to Annie with a meaningful look, and then stares at Yelena with a joyless look. Looking intently at Pieck, Annie understands the signal Pieck is trying to send. “She’s an asshole?” she says quietly.

“It’s complicated, but yes, watch out,” Pieck replies dourly, her voice low to keep anyone from hearing her.

“What’s with the special disdain for her? Did she break your heart or something?”

Pieck hisses gently. “Be quiet.”

Annie smirks unapologetically in barely concealed mirth at inferring their relationship correctly. “You better tell me about it later—when we have a better time.”

“Definitely,” Pieck says resolutely. Her face turns serious. “Annie, please don’t leave us again.” She hesitates a little, her demeanor a sea change from the relentless charging she had to partake in earlier in the day. “The past four years were unspeakably painful. I woke up every day, wondering what the point of everything was.”

“You had your father,” Annie answers, mournful. They both know she’s not trying to trivialize things—just reaching out to test the anchors of what she knew about Pieck, in order to discern how much things have changed.

“But you were important to me too, Annie,” Pieck pleads. “Still are. Your return is the only happy thing I’ve had in a long time.”

“If it’s any consolation, I thought about you and the others whenever I was conscious,” Annie confesses quietly, her head hanging a little lower now. “Especially you.”

They can’t say it now, in a den of their not-so-distant-enemies trying to kill them not too long ago, in front of so many people who will search them with judging eyes, but Pieck knows Annie is trying to tell her in her own way about how she missed this, missed them, missed the simplicity and un-complication of their friendship that was a lifeline in a world muddied by world powers who engaged in argumentative gymnastics over the ethics of killing Eldians like them. Missed the girl who was a confidante and safe space for her complex thoughts on her father, and understood the cruelty and beauty of the world simultaneously, suspending these two immutable truths in melancholic balance in her advice to Annie.

When she ascertains that nobody is looking—Reiner has tactfully turned away to allow her and Pieck the reunion they need, not just deserve-- she presses a kiss to the corner of Pieck’s mouth and reaches out for her wrist, caressing and smoothing away a small scar that has nipped at Pieck’s skin there. And for someone usually as reticent as Annie, that is all the gesture needed to communicate how much Pieck means to her.

That four years hasn’t diminished their closeness at all, that they can continue on bantering as though Annie never left suddenly and without closure for the rest of them, is extraordinary and something Pieck holds close to her heart right now, as she feels her heavy head being weighed down by worldly responsibilities that are no less than _stop the Rumbling_.

If this comes to pass, Pieck muses, they really need to have a chat together. And some life-giving cuddles. For now, she is on a mission to get acquainted with the presence of a girl she’d thought was ghost, and hold her tighter and never let her go again. 

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this to combat some writer’s block I had and general crappy feelings I’d been having about my lack of productivity during my quarantine. conditions have not been ideal for doing my university work, in addition to my mounting anxiety around my university’s waffly decision making around final exams. I decided to let it go briefly and do something self indulgent and fun. and thus this short fic was born.
> 
> I think Pieck/Annie is a pairing with much potential; if you want to read about my take on them (I write them here as a semi established relationship, which is based on my headcanons for them), see [my tumblr post here](https://meikuree.tumblr.com/post/613464805328732160/some-pieckannie-thoughts).
> 
> comments/encouragements are welcome and will be greatly appreciated in these times; and I hope whoever reads this is taking care too.
> 
> find me on [tumblr](https://meikuree.tumblr.com/) and [twitter](https://twitter.com/meikuree)


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